theashtraysays

Yo la Tengo.  

Sorta.  

Anyone seen this?  No idea what to expect other than a live soundtrack by YLT and a live narrated documentary about someone I've never heard of.  

1 hour ago, Chez said:

Wow. Kind of off-brand for you, no?  Enjoy.  

Little bit yeah.  One that my wife actually WANTS to go to.  We saw him in London this summer the night before Wilco  and he really is a great musician and entertainer.  

Jon Batiste

And the Instagram post from SSF has this, so, yeah.  

Low Cut Connie

Shoutout to the one and only @kidsmoke for reviving the VC after its most recent unexpected hiatus. 

"It's really great to be back playing the EnormoDome!" 

And with that, Wilco began their Western Canada 3-city finale to the "August Evening With" tour of 2025.  But as mentioned above by our absent-once-again humble correspondent, the usual two-set-plus-encore format was *not* Meant To Be this evening.  There was plenty of character (and a couple characters) however to make it a memorable evening for what seemed like a very eager Vancouver crowd attending the show as part of the PNE Fair.  

A ticket to the concert included admission to the fair, so a few of us arrived early to check out the Fair Fare along with a performance by SuperDogs, a cheesy but delightful canine agility troop which was clearly a favorite of fair-goers.  Fair Fare was on point, rivaling the best state fair cuisine I've seen plus the Canada-obligatory poutine stand.  Carny rides and exhibits of farm stuff made for a interesting pre-show afternoon, and I doubt we even saw half of it!  One refreshing aspect was that there was no metal detector / wanding for entry to either the fair or the concert.  I even saw one guy in the venue with a backpack.  Nice to be in Canada, eh?  Conversely I did find it odd that there wasn't a single photographer in the pit at this show. 

The actual venue for this show and the others during the fair was a coliseum inside the grounds, which also housed hockey games (matches? I'm not a local) and the like.  Big place, I heard it can hold 17,000 or so, but for this show the entire upper level was closed off.  Still a big place, with folding chairs on the floor and 100% reserved seating.  Cool wooden radial ceiling.  Downright cavernous with a huge stage and a bit of an echo starting off with Jeff's vocals and acoustic on Story to Tell.  

Even with the short show, Jeff had quite a bit of banter for the crowd. After just the second song, he mentioned "It was my birthday a couple days ago.  You're late." 

A couple songs after the EnormoDome comment, someone in the crowd near the front yelled out "I BROUGHT WEED", to which Jeff replied "You brought weed?  Do you know how long rock shows have been going on?  Back in my day we didn't have to announce it."  The weed theme continued on a bit through the evening.  After Spiders, Jeff said "Did you use your 'pot' on that song?  That was a good song for that.  This one is even better" before starting into Bird / Base.  Similarly he recommended "I don't suggest the weed for this one" before Annihilation.  

After Evicted, Jeff noticed a rather bald guy in about the fifth row and commented "There's a guy right here with WILCO on his forehead. I really hope that isn't a tattoo.  But if it is it's great!" (perhaps not wanting to dis the guy's affection just in case it really was permanent). After Either Way, he said 'Last time I played that I got stung by a bee!"  "Where at?" (perhaps asking about which city this occurred) "On the back of my neck".  Oh, OK.  

Flubs?  Yep, we got those too.  Big flub on the opening lines of Box Full of Letters (you'd think that one would be burned into long term memory).  And then on CaliStars, once again the transition from someone's solo into the next verse got tangled up by Jeff AND John, prompting a "we both fucked it up!" from Jeff after the song ended.  

And as happens rather frequently, there were several open seats in the center front section, including a couple front row and probably 8-10 in a row in the 3rd or 4th row.  Just ahead of Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff made his usual comment about noticing that, saying that apparently he must spit a lot, and like Gallagher they ought to sell ponchos down front.  But the comment, along with the crowd favorite HMD, seemed to grant permission to the ever-sitting crowd that they ought to claim said empty seats and make a rail rush.  Folks poured into the empty seats and jammed the aisles up against the rail and squeezed into the front row rail.  Everyone else stood.  That lasted a couple songs including the set-closing I'm the Man, before security came and shoo'ed everyone away who was in the aisle.  We also stood for the encore.

Musically, I noticed a couple things I hadn't before.  The acoustic Spiders has a healthy dose of cowbell now.  Nice.  And in Walkin, Jeff holds the last note of "You're just riiiiiiiiight" for a remarkably long time.  

As for the short set... I, and I'm sure the other die hard fans out there, were fully expecting the "evening with" format that Wilcoworld indicated for this show of two full sets with a long-ish break and then a regular encore.  Somewhere early in the set I thought Jeff said something along the lines of "we're gonna play then come back", which I took to be his usual preface for the intermission and the format.  It wasn't exactly his same speech as the one he's used in the "real" evening with shows, and I didn't really pay attention to it, so he might have given some hint that it wasn't going to be the full monty.  And a couple times he said "I wish we had more time" which I thought was odd.  But once the main set went into the couplet of Impossible Germany / Jesus etc, I realized something wasn't quite right.  Then HMD and I'm The Man, and I really wondered what they were gonna do for set 2.  They left after that, but came back 2 minutes later and started CaliStars. After the usual Walkin / I Got You, they left the stage for good, again saying they wished they had more time and see you next time.  The show started at 7:47 and ended at 9:37, so a little under two hours.  I was really more puzzled than disappointed, and very few folks in the crowd even seemed to notice or understand.  There were no Boo's or "WTF's??" or anyone really looking puzzled except a couple of us frequent guests, so I don't think it caused an international incident.  I presume the fair was closing at 10, so they wanted everyone out by then.  And BBop's comment that it was probably that way to stay consistent with the other concerts during the fair is very likely the case.  In talking with Wilco folks later, they said that they were only contracted for a regular (sub-2 hour) set, and it wasn't really clear who-knew-what-when about the needed adjustment to the format.  

All in all a great set, definitely a concentrated, crowd-pleasing version of the current set of songs they've been playing this run.  And if the Canadians were disappointed, they were as always too polite to mention it.  

Cheers!
Vince

Yes the Nova was sound checked before the show, and an early bird headed for the rail did tip me off. Night 2 seems to be a given and hopefully it’ll make its way across the border for the upcoming shows there. I’d still trade it in for a satellite up there but hey, beggars / choosers and all that. 

Molly Tuttle

Imagine my surprise - and anxiety - when I looked around the rail and saw neither hide nor hair of our reliable reporter on the premises.  A quick communique confirmed that he was indeed not in the building but apparently chose sportsball over Wilco for the evening.  Sigh.  Unprepared as I was (with not a shred of paper on me or my rail companions), I accepted my fate and tried to capture a few moments of witticism and general observations about this almost-but-not-exactly St. Louis show. So here goes.

The Factory is one of those newer indoor venues that many of you have started seeing, with a giant open floor,  seated wraparound balcony set far back, a "premium" area which in this case was a slightly raised deck behind the GA section, and a kickass sound system.  Folks mentioned that it reminded them of the new Pinnacle in Nashville, and to me it seemed like a larger version of the Andrew J Brady music center in Cincinnati or perhaps a slightly smaller and newer version of the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco.  This one in suburban St. Louis has a stated capacity of 3400, and although Ticketmaster still showed available GA tickets and even a few singles of reserved balcony seats, it seemed pretty close to full.  We did notice quite a range of age / generations in the room too.  The venue was at one end of a large new strip mall / entertainment area called The District which had several bars, restaurants, shops (including a hair "salon suites" which had individual rooms with a salon chair for those who wanted their do done in private except for the fact that each one had a full glass window onto the walkway of the mall.  But enough about that..) and had a TopGolf anchoring the other end.  A huge stage, high ceiling, and definitely that aforementioned kickass house PA, along with an equally kickass and highly welcomed air conditioning system to give us sidewalk folks some relief from the 90+ degree mostly sunny afternoon.  Jeff mentioned "nice place you got here" which was met with a "nah" from someone in the audience (I presume because it wasn't one of the venues that Wilco had played all those years ago) to which Jeff replied "No? Well you're here".  Oh, and there is a HUGE mural of Jeff just inside one of the entry doors which was fabulous.

On to the show then.  They opened with Story To Tell as they have a few times on this run, and for the most part the setlist was typical of the summer of 2025 "evening with" shows.  Jeff quickly noted that it was good to be playing in Chesterfield, noting "and yes I know the difference (between it and St. Louis)" but that it was "still a hometown show" for him.  After that opener, with the audience being quite respectful and almost polite in applause (to the rather mild "Story to Tell" opener) Jeff noted that this was quite a reserved audience for St. Louis for the smattering of applause that died off quite quickly, and said "that's OK... we've played Japan" before adding that it would be better if we all applauded more and fully into the next song.  Which of course we all did from then all through the rest of the show.  After a couple of very obvious runs of that exaggerated long & loud applause between songs, Jeff challenged us saying "let's see if you can keep that up during the 15 minute break".  So that particular pandering paid off quite well for them.  After a generous applause for Nels after Impossible Germany Jeff said "and we get to listen to that every night!". 

There were of course plenty of hometown mentions and references throughout the show too.  After Hummingbird Jeff said "that was for my dad, wherever he is".  During the second set he dedicated a song (Falling Apart Right Now) to his Aunt Gail, who he said was one of the only relatives of his left in that area and that he spent as much time with her as his (immediate) family, also noting that the song itself wasn't exactly the best for a dedication to her.  Ahead of Heavy Metal Drummer he told how the next song was about an actual place (the Landing) and asked if it was still around as such.  It isn't, per the audience feedback, to which Jeff quipped "To be honest I never liked it to begin with, but I did write a song about it."  And of course no hometown show would be complete without the obligatory "Casino Queen" which Jeff intro'ed by saying " I already played one for my dad but my mom liked this one too" for the final song of the encore.  

Aside from the banter, a few noticings worth a mention.  Meant to Be finally made it to the setlist, but somehow Pat's electric guitar failed to get plugged in during the swap from the previous song.  So that first little intro riff was short one guitar which was quite noticeable.  He quickly recovered and grabbed the cable and joined in.  Perhaps in recognition of the indoor room, Jeff had exchanged his newfound light colored ensemble and was back to his black jeans and dark (plaid) shirt.  For those of you who've seen Jeff struggle with a lyric or two, we had a couple of those too.  But first on the opposite side of that coin, I am happy to say that Jeff did get the "I take out the trash" closing line correct this time on Hate It Here (unlike the total flub in the prior Chicago Salt Shed show).  I was directly in front of him during the show and let out a congratulatory "YAY" when he got it right, which was met with a rather sheepish grin from our hero.  According to my rail-mate, he tangled up more than a few of the words in Forget the Flowers (which I didn't notice).  But the winner in this category was for sure at the opening of Casino Queen, which to be fair isn't played all that often.  At the start of the song it's both Jeff and John singing that opening line "Well the money's pouring down/And the people all look down/And it's floating out of town".  Jeff totally spaced out and just skipped that entire part of the song, stepped back from the mic, then jumped back in to "hit the second deck" with another sheepish look on his face.   John got it right, so folks might not have actually noticed the flub. 

A good time was had by all from my vantage point.  All smiles heading out of the show which started promptly at 8:00 and ended about 10:50.

The setlist above is accurate.  Spiders was listed as the second encore song but was not played.

Would love for anyone else in attendance to chime in with whatever I missed (I know I only got about 2/3 of the banter at best...)

Cheers!

Vince

33 minutes ago, Chez said:

*Sigh* had tickets for this one, but had to sell them after I was advised by my wife their her family reunion in Boston was a better "option" for me last weekend.  When I purchased the tickets, I was a little put-off by the "premier zone" option.  Did folks in the premier zone get to stand closest to the rail? Grey Poupon?

Bummer you missed it…

I didn’t notice anyone in the rail who wasn’t in line with us hardcores in the sidewalk all afternoon. I think the designated zone for them was the long balcony along stage left which had stools along the rail of that balcony. The closest spots up there seemed to fill up pretty fast. 
That said, there weren’t any wristbands for the main GA area so I don’t know of the balcony peeps could’ve wandered down to the rail with us if they wanted. 

I was in the immediate proximity of the bbop so I also don’t have a lot of insight to the other areas of the venue.
But one thing I noticed is that during the set break, just as the band was about to re-enter the stage, they flooded the stage with red light and played the theme from Jaws. Apparently they’ve done this a couple shows now but I have no idea why. Inquiry to the crew about it yielded no insight other than “Fun, right??” so for now it’s a mystery. 
 

 Prior to the actual show (but well after doors) there was a kayak race on the adjacent river which had representation from a few of the local record shops. They showed the race on the big screens flanking the stage, complete with play by play (stroke by stroke?) of the participants. It was excellent Chicagoland kitsch, in a minor league baseball team vein. 
 

As for the show itself, 34 songs in a hometown environment is everything you’d ever want in a Wilco show. 
 

see y’all on the rail …

Vince 

^ congrats!! 
see ya there! 

The Back of My Eyelids 

Beck with orchestra 

5 hours ago, SarahC said:

I bet that was great!

We wanted to go, but it would have made it really hard to be functional at work today. 

It was a blast!  Hot & crowded and everything you'd want out of a show.  Pat was having the time of his life!

Big Star Quintet

Yo la Tengo + Built to Spill (yes, again). 

Yo la Tengo + Built to Spill 

Only an occasional fan of historical fiction, and this one was a tad long, but I greatly enjoyed the read. 

Heckuva show indeed! 
I’ll just add that the venue was kind of like a much less bougie version of Salvage Station in Asheville if you’ve been to that one before it was washed away. 

Wilco - bookending my Europe music trek 

Jon Batiste 

Deep Sea Diver opens. I rather doubt we’d get the “evening with” double Wilco sets. 

Great band out of (I think) the PNW somewhere. They’ve opened for Wilco before a few years back. 
 

This is on the wilcoworld page -

As I missed night one in the forest in Antwerp, I can’t compare the two but I can say that this show was entirely delightful. Such a gorgeous evening and setting, a few nice setlist surprises, and a warm crowd who packed out the cozy little amphitheater to the far corners. 
In addition to the “sign decline” mentioned above (not that I’ll be deterred of course), I’ll add one bit of banter that I came across. 
Just before Via Chicago, in the quiet moment as the band was settling into the instrument change, someone (a woman I think) in the rail area in front of Nels let out a good solid “WOOO”.  Jeff happened to be looking right at her at the time and apologetically said something like “I’m sorry- I was looking right at you just now”, and then proceeded to maintain direct eye contact with her for the opening lyric of “I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me” before giving a grin and continuing on as normal. 
And for sure the lyric flub on Hate it Here was a hoot - I for one was quite nervous that the floor was NEVER gonna get swept, but he came around at the end. 
Macie on Quiet Amplifier was beautiful, as was her addition to the abbreviated drone on LTYT and segue into Spiders. Quiet Amplifier is the highlight of the show for me these days. 
Well, at least till we bring back You Satellite…

Happy to have made the show, see friends old and new, and spend a delightful evening in the park with Wilco.